Single DNA molecular manipulation with atomic force microscopy

Nanomanipulation of DNA molecules or other biomolecules to form artificial patterns or structures at nanometer scale has potential applications in the construction of molecular devices in future industries. It may also lead to new insights into the interesting properties and behavior of this fantastic nature-selected molecule at the sin- gle-molecular level. Here we present a special method based on the combination of macroscopic “molecular comb- ing” and microscopic “molecular cutting” to manipulate DNA molecules and form complex patterns at nanometer scale on solid surfaces. A possible strategy for ordered DNA sequencing based on this nanomanipulation technique has also been proposed.